Thomas

On Saturday 26 May, Professor Neumann presented a BH Neumann Award to Alice Thomas at a function in the Scarth Room of University House, Canberra.

Alice Thomas receives her Award from Professor Neumann.

Alice Thomas with family. Rear, from left great-niece Felicity Parkhill, niece Claire Parkhill, daughter-in-law Dianne, son Richard, grandaughter Rachael. Front, Alice with Richard.

Citation

Alice was born in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales,a a fertile rural region. It was unusual for a girl to show an interest in becoming a mathematics teacher, involving studying at University in Sydney, but her father defended her right to pursue this course.

Alice has pursued a long career as a teacher, particularly in the most recent years at Meriden College, Sydney, where she has become a role model in inspiring students to take an interest in Mathematics.

In 1990 she took up an invitation from Peter O'Halloran to become a foundation member of the Challenge committee, joining another teacher in Andy Edwards and a number of academics under the leadership of Bruce Henry. In her time on the committee she has been prolific in the creation of challenging problems for secondary students as well as in constructively helping to embellish problems contributed by others. Her contributions have been professional by any judgement.

She has written texts for students, both with Phoenix and CUP, in the latter case joining probably the most illustrious writing team in Australia, including Michael Evans and Bill Pender.

Alice has, as a teacher, run many workshops for teachers around her state, up as far north as Murwillimbah, written countless Journal articles, been active running the Challenge in her own school, and been involved with various NSW Committees overseeing the school syllabus.

In her personal life Alice has endured the extremes of life in a remarkable way, and in conclusion she is a most worthy winner of this award and typical of what the award is about.

Peter Taylor

Saturday 26 May 2001